A possible dose–response association between distance to farmers’ markets and roadside produce stands, frequency of shopping, fruit and vegetable consumption, and body mass index among customers in the Southern United States

Background: The association between farmers’ market characteristics and consumer shopping habits remains unclear. Our objective was to examine associations among distance to farmers’ markets, amenities within farmers’ markets, frequency of farmers’ market shopping, fruit and vegetable consumption, and body mass index (BMI). We hypothesized that the relationship between frequency of farmers’ market shopping and BMI would be mediated by fruit and vegetable consumption. Methods: In 15 farmers’ markets in northeastern North Carolina, July–September 2015, we conducted a crosssectional survey among 263 farmers’ market customers (199 provided complete address data) and conducted farmers’ market audits. To participate, customers had to be over 18 years of age, and English speaking. Dependent variables included farmers’ market shopping frequency, fruit and vegetable consumption, and BMI. Analysis of variance, adjusted multinomial logistic regression, Poisson regression, and linear regression models, adjusted for age, race, sex, and education, were used to examine associations between distance to farmers’ markets, amenities within farmers’ markets, frequency of farmers’ market shopping, fruit and vegetable consumption, and BMI. Results: Those who reported shopping at farmers’ markets a few times per year or less reported consuming 4.4 (standard deviation = 1.7) daily servings of fruits and vegetables, and those who reported shopping 2 or more times per week reported consuming 5.5 (2.2) daily servings. There was no association between farmers’ market amenities, and shopping frequency or fruit and vegetable consumption. Those who shopped 2 or more times per week had a statistically significantly lower BMI than those who shopped less frequently. There was no evidence of mediation of the relationship between frequency of shopping and BMI by fruit and vegetable consumption. Conclusions: More work should be done to understand factors within farmers’ markets that encourage fruit and vegetable purchases.ECU Open Access Publishing Support Fun

Arguments Used in Public Comments to Support or Oppose the US Department of Agriculture's Minimum Stocking Requirements: A Content Analysis

Background: In 2016, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Retailer Rule proposed several changes for SNAP-authorized retailers, including: requiring retailers to have at least 85% of their food sales come from items that are not cooked or heated on site before or after purchase; requiring stores to stock seven varieties of qualifying foods from four staple food groups; requiring stores to carry perishable foods in three of the four staple groups; requiring stores to carry six units of qualifying foods at all times (depth of stock); disqualifying multiple ingredient foods and accessory foods from counting toward depth of stock requirements. Objectives: To better understand arguments used to support or oppose the USDA's proposed rule that all SNAP-authorized retailers carry more nutritious foods. Design: We conducted a qualitative content analysis of a random sample of public comments posted to the US Federal Register (a publicly available database) in response to the USDA's proposed rule. Participants/setting: A random sample of 20% of all public comments submitted by individuals and organizations to the US Federal Register were analyzed (n=303) for this study. Results: Three main themes were discussed: 1) arguments used in opposition to the rule; 2) arguments used in support of the rule; and 3) facilitators to assist stores in implementing the rule. Some of the subthemes included focusing on definitions used in the rule, reduced food access caused by stores leaving the SNAP program, lack of space and equipment for healthy foods, and the potential for increasing healthy food access. Conclusions: Nutrition and dietetics practitioners may be tasked with working with stores to implement healthy changes. Nutrition and dietetics practitioners must understand the role that the USDA has in food policy. In addition, understanding how federal food policy influences the environments in which dietetics professionals’ clients are making food choices is important

Rural corner store owners’ perceptions of stocking healthier foods in response to proposed SNAP retailer rule changes

Purpose: To better understand rural corner store owners’ perceptions about the then proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Retailer Rule. Methods: We conducted 32 interviews with rural corner store owners across six states in response to USDA's proposed rule. We asked owners about potential barriers to and facilitators of stocking healthier foods. Findings: Among the interviews, there were six main themes discussed: (1) SNAP Retailer Rule definition concerns; (2) challenges to implementation; (3) facilitators to implementation; (4) perceptions of SNAP customers; (5) benefits of being a participating retailer in SNAP; and (6) concerns about the threat to the store's economic viability if required to carry additional healthier items in line with the proposed rule. Conclusions: Rural corner stores need help promoting healthier food options, appropriately handling perishable items, finding suppliers that can adhere to their food delivery requirements, and maintaining their SNAP retailer license. Recognizing the implementation challenges of stocking healthier foods for corner stores and presenting feasible solutions to them can improve the likelihood of successful passages of healthy food access policies and programs. Future policies or programs focusing on stocking healthier foods should take into consideration rural corner stores’ unique geographic landscape and business practices

“We don’t separate out these things. Everything is related”: Partnerships with Indigenous Communities to Design, Implement, and Evaluate Multilevel Interventions to Reduce Health Disparities

Multilevel interventions (MLIs) are appropriate to reduce health disparities among Indigenous peoples because of their ability to address these communities’ diverse histories, dynamics, cultures, politics, and environments. Intervention science has highlighted the importance of context-sensitive MLIs in Indigenous communities that can prioritize Indigenous and local knowledge systems and emphasize the collective versus the individual. This paradigm shift away from individual-level focus interventions to community-level focus interventions underscores the need for community engagement and diverse partnerships in MLI design, implementation, and evaluation. In this paper, we discuss three case studies addressing how Indigenous partners collaborated with researchers in each stage of the design, implementation, and evaluation of MLIs to reduce health disparities impacting their communities. We highlight the following: (1) collaborations with multiple, diverse tribal partners to carry out MLIs which require iterative, consistent conversations over time; (2) inclusion of qualitative and Indigenous research methods in MLIs as a way to honor Indigenous and local knowledge systems as well as a way to understand a health disparity phenomenon in a community; and (3) relationship building, maintenance, and mutual respect among MLI partners to reconcile past research abuses, prevent extractive research practices, decolonize research processes, and generate co-created knowledge between Indigenous and academic communities

Developing an agenda for research about policies to improve access to healthy foods in rural communities: a concept mapping study

Background Policies that improve access to healthy, affordable foods may improve population health and reduce health disparities. In the United States most food access policy research focuses on urban communities even though residents of rural communities face disproportionately higher risk for nutrition-related chronic diseases compared to residents of urban communities. The purpose of this study was to (1) identify the factors associated with access to healthy, affordable food in rural communities in the United States; and (2) prioritize a meaningful and feasible rural food policy research agenda. Methods This study was conducted by the Rural Food Access Workgroup (RFAWG), a workgroup facilitated by the Nutrition and Obesity Policy Research and Evaluation Network. A national sample of academic and non-academic researchers, public health and cooperative extension practitioners, and other experts who focus on rural food access and economic development was invited to complete a concept mapping process that included brainstorming the factors that are associated with rural food access, sorting and organizing the factors into similar domains, and rating the importance of policies and research to address these factors. As a last step, RFAWG members convened to interpret the data and establish research recommendations. Results Seventy-five participants in the brainstorming exercise represented the following sectors: non-extension research (n = 27), non-extension program administration (n = 18), “other� (n = 14), policy advocacy (n = 10), and cooperative extension service (n = 6). The brainstorming exercise generated 90 distinct statements about factors associated with rural food access in the United States; these were sorted into 5 clusters. Go Zones were established for the factors that were rated highly as both a priority policy target and a priority for research. The highest ranked policy and research priorities include strategies designed to build economic viability in rural communities, improve access to federal food and nutrition assistance programs, improve food retail systems, and increase the personal food production capacity of rural residents. Respondents also prioritized the development of valid and reliable research methodologies to measure variables associated with rural food access. Conclusions This collaborative, trans-disciplinary, participatory process, created a map to guide and prioritize research about polices to improve healthy, affordable food access in rural communities

Single and sequential applications of dicamba for the control of glyphosate-resistant common ragweed in glyphosate- and dicamba-resistant soybean

Confirmation of glyphosate-resistant (GR) weeds in southwestern Ontario has led to a change in weed management practices, particularly in soybean. Registered soil applied herbicides have been identified that have activity on GR common ragweed, however, due to the long emergence period of common ragweed, additional postemergence options are required. The recent development of glyphosate- and dicamba-resistant soybean (Roundup Ready Xtend soybean) allows for the preplant and postemergence application of dicamba. Three field studies were conducted in Ontario, Canada in a field with confirmed GR common ragweed. GR common ragweed interference resulted in 75% yield loss in soybean compared to the weed-free check. At 4 weeks after application, dicamba tank-mixed with glyphosate, applied preplant only, postemergence only, or preplant followed by postemergence controlled GR common ragweed up to 94, 87 and 99%, respectively. The availability of dicamba for use in glyphosate- and dicamba-resistant soybean will provide an additional mode of action for weed management in soybean.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

New Curricula for Undergraduate Food-Systems Education: A Sustainable Agriculture Education Perspective

New undergraduate degree programs that address food systems have appeared at a number of North American universities in the past decade. These programs seek to complement established food- and agriculturerelated courses of instruction with additional curricular elements that build students' capacity to address complex food-systems issues (e.g., food sustainability, security, quality, equity and justice) in the course of their work in food-related professions. Here, we examine these emerging food-systems curricula, building on our collective experiences developing food-systems degree programs at University of British Columbia, Montana State University, University of California-Davis and the University of Minnesota. We present the conceptual framework that underlies our efforts, based on the premise that our degree programs should help students build "systemic" capacities that complement disciplinary training provided by various specialization "tracks." Thus, we intend for our graduates to have a dual preparation, in both a particular specialization, and in overarching systemic capacities that enhance their ability to address complex food-system issues. We assess our current curricula in light of our framework, and outline highpriority pathways for further development of these curricula

New Curricula for Undergraduate Food-Systems Education: A Sustainable Agriculture Education Perspective

New undergraduate degree programs that address food systems have appeared at a number of North American universities in the past decade. These programs seek to complement established food- and agriculturerelated courses of instruction with additional curricular elements that build students' capacity to address complex food-systems issues (e.g., food sustainability, security, quality, equity and justice) in the course of their work in food-related professions. Here, we examine these emerging food-systems curricula, building on our collective experiences developing food-systems degree programs at University of British Columbia, Montana State University, University of California-Davis and the University of Minnesota. We present the conceptual framework that underlies our efforts, based on the premise that our degree programs should help students build "systemic" capacities that complement disciplinary training provided by various specialization "tracks." Thus, we intend for our graduates to have a dual preparation, in both a particular specialization, and in overarching systemic capacities that enhance their ability to address complex food-system issues. We assess our current curricula in light of our framework, and outline highpriority pathways for further development of these curricula

Hospital Consolidation and the Nurse Labor Market * Handley for advice and suggestions, and to

Abstract This paper examines the impact of two types of hospital consolidationsmergers and system-joinings-on the employment and wages of nurses. Nurses are an important market to examine as there are persistent reports of shortages and large expected future demand. Using data on all hospital consolidations between 1983 and 2009, I find large employment decreases following a hospital merger but no decrease following a system-joining. I also find zero wage effect from either type of consolidation. I conclude that this result is consistent with the employment decreases being driven by efficiency gains rather than an increase in monopsony power